Eight people were arrested and 15 were charged in an alleged scheme to bilk more than $50 million in healthcare funds by running sham hospice facilities across Southern California, federal officials announced Thursday.
The defendants billed Medicare for reimbursement payments for hospice care for patients over several years, federal officials said, but many of those patients were not terminally ill. Federal officials who unsealed the charges Thursday described them as brazen efforts to commit fraud at several facilities across the region.
“This happens entirely too much, particularly in Los Angeles County,” said First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli. “We are making fraud a priority.”
Federal officials arrested eight people on various fraud charges in a crackdown dubbed “Operation Never Say Die.” Though the cases were not connected, officials said they adopted similar ways to defraud the medical system.
Some of the defendants were also medical care providers, Essayli pointed out, including three nurses, a chiropractor and a psychologist.
The defendants operated facilities in Covina, Anaheim, Glendale and Lakewood. Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said Southern California was rife with hospice fraud.
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